Pricewatch!

January 2nd, 2008, 10:52

Just ordered Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance off of www.gogamer.com for real cheap. It's part of their "48 hour madness" sale right now and is going for $19.99(50% off) It's the expansion for the excellent Supreme Commander RTS game.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Just ordered Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance off of www.gogamer.com for real cheap. It's part of their "48 hour madness" sale right now and is going for $19.99(50% off) It's the expansion for the excellent Supreme Commander RTS game.

It is nice, played it before Christmas. Unfortunately it was released in the shadow of the Company of Heroes expansion … just as the game was released in the shadow of CoH …

Originally Posted by JDR13
That's still $44 US Dollars, not much of a deal by our standards.

When it comes to games often the used currency ratio is 1 euro = 1 dollar. Just last weekend I was looking at the price of one paradox game and it listed the price as 24,95$ / 24,95€. From the forums I read that the earlier retailer of the game (strategy first) had tried to sell it for 24,95$ / 17,95€ but developers cancelled the deal with them (and made a new deal with paradox) because the euro price was too low.

Originally Posted by zakhal
When it comes to games often the used currency ratio is 1 euro = 1 dollar. Just last weekend I was looking at the price of one paradox game and it listed the price as 24,95$ / 24,95€. From the forums I read that the earlier retailer of the game (strategy first) had tried to sell it for 24,95$ / 17,95€ but developers cancelled the deal with them (and made a new deal with paradox) because the euro price was too low.

Based on monthly average the last time euro was 1.20284 USD (20% VAT) was in march 2006. In december 2007 it was 1.45517 USD (45% VAT???).

I guess they are just slow to take account the currency changes (its not like anyone forces them to do it). Perhaps once per year or two. I know one online shop in america that does it perhaps twice per year and the prices became real low during the last year (20-30€ for new games). Made me buy more than few of their games.

Originally Posted by zakhal
Based on monthly average the last time euro was 1.20284 USD (20% VAT) was in march 2006. In december 2007 it was 1.45517 USD (45% VAT???).

I wasnīt talking about the exchange rate. You misunderstood me. Or you have no clue what VAT (aka. sales tax) is.
The shop calculates a net price which includes his margin. Then the sales tax comes on top of it. The result is the final price which is displayed to end customers, for example 54.95 € for Hellgate London.
VAT in Finnland is 22%. Itīs added on all goods and services which are used in Finnland or are imported into Finnland, apart from a couple of exceptions with lower rates.
The US prices usually do not include this sales tax. Itīs added when you check out, if it has to be paid. So if you want to compare the prices you have to either add VAT to the US prices or deduct it from the Euro prices.

I guess they are just slow to take account the currency changes (its not like anyone forces them to do it). Perhaps once per year or two. I know one online shop in america that does it perhaps twice per year and the prices became real low during the last year (20-30€ for new games). Made me buy more than few of their games.

Why should they have the same price in dollar and Euro? Itīs more clever to take what you can get in each market.

Only for the few days it takes a competitor to send you a cease and desist.

Itīs one of the key foundations of the European Economic Area to pay in the same currency (EUR), at least in the countries which chose to participate, and pay exactly what the price label says. This makes prices easier to compare and simplifies a lot of things.

Originally Posted by Gorath
I wasnīt talking about the exchange rate. You misunderstood me. Or you have no clue what VAT (aka. sales tax) is.
The shop calculates a net price which includes his margin. Then the sales tax comes on top of it. The result is the final price which is displayed to end customers, for example 54.95 € for Hellgate London.
VAT in Finnland is 22%. Itīs added on all goods and services which are used in Finnland or are imported into Finnland, apart from a couple of exceptions with lower rates.
The US prices usually do not include this sales tax. Itīs added when you check out, if it has to be paid. So if you want to compare the prices you have to either add VAT to the US prices or deduct it from the Euro prices.

I know very well what VAT is and the fact that US prices doesnt include it (noticed it myself once when I ordered som stuff from there). The point is that it would have to be as high as 45% to explain the difference and thats way above the norm that is 20% - so it simply doesnt fly as an explanation.

I just hate when people explain higher euro prices with "taxes" even though it certainly does not explain it. Its not just games but all kinds of consumer stuff. My guess is that rest of the world hates europe (world wars, colonialism?) and they always add extra to the cost when they import stuff here. In example the console / computer part / HDTV prices are just an insult when compared to countries like japan or USA.

Last time I calculated prices for ps3 the us version costs same if you reduce features (i.e remove ps2 compatability), use 1 = 1 currency conversion, add max taxes and 200€ "extra cost" to the top. Its madness.

Originally Posted by zakhal
I know very well what VAT is and the fact that US prices doesnt include it (noticed it myself once when I ordered som stuff from there). The point is that it would have to be as high as 45% to explain the difference and thats way above the norm that is 20% - so it simply doesnt fly as an explanation.

It was no explanation. It was a clarification that there is not as much of a difference as it seems at first glance.

I once read an article in a German magazine called c't , and it was about higher prices for translated software, I think the example even mentioned Adobe.

The point was that they said that the higher price was due to translation, and that German customers were NOT allowed to use the much cheaper English-language versions of the software !

The author of the article argued (at least that's how I have in my memory) that even plus the costs for translations the price shouldn't be *that* high. He then stated the (rather cynical, imho) guess that Europeans get those higher prices simply because they are used to it and kind of support the original English-language versions (which he implicitely expressed with that to be rather under-priced) of the software.

From a today's perspective I'd say that this article was just a product out of pure frustration, maybe, but at least I can see why, because I often feel so frustrated about it myself.

The German economy seems to also o into this direction: "We put our prices high, because Germans are used to pay high prices nevertheless. So we can have much more profits." (Imaginary comment of an imaginary manager. )

A few days ago I read about a small software company sellkiing their software only in Euros right now, because the Dollar is so "weak", so to say.

—  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)